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The soils describe the specific history of each terroir. The Raventós i Blanc estate also witnessed the geological events that formed the Pyrenees and the Penedès Valley, when the Mediterranean Sea covered this land before its profile was shaped by the River Anoia.
The passage of the river through our estate causes soil of marine origin to come to the surface - soil that is around 16 million years old, and in which an incredible number of marine fossils were deposited. Our soils have excellent water reserves for winegrowing due to the proportion of clays, limes and sands, as well as the generous depth of the earth.
Everything began 40 million years ago, when the European and African continental tectonic plates collided, forming Europe's and Catalonia’s main mountain ranges: the Pyrenees and today's Catalan Coastal and Pre-Coastal Ranges. Twenty million years later, a change of direction in the movement of the large plates
Rivers carrying continental materials such as marl and other sediments flowed into the estuary depositing these items on the seabed where they joined marine organisms such as shellfish, sea urchins, sea snails, etc.
Five million years ago, a geological event known as “the Messinian Salinity Crisis” occurred, during which the drying out of the Mediterranean caused an extreme drop in the sea level.
The fossil-bearing land that the River Anoia uncovered during the excavation periods, and the sediments it deposited during the more productive periods, form part of the soils on the Raventós i Blanc estate.
Of marine origin made up of sandstone, marl, calcarenites and a large number of marine fossils. The geological units of this area are formed by sediments of marine and coastal origin and are around 16 million years’ old (Miocene). The sediments of marine origin are grey clays, sands with small fragments of fossils and sand with pebbles and large pieces of fossils (sea snails, shells and oysters). The coastal sediments are brownish sands rich in quartz and mica, unconsolidated and with sporadic evidence of fragments of rock (quartz and metamorphic and igneous rocks) from Montseny and the Maresme.
There are a large number of eroded limestone pebbles from the Catalan mountain range that existed here around 120 million years ago (at a shallow depth we find soil of marine origin).
The highest vineyard is located on top of conglomerates of continental origin, which are between 2 and 5 million years old (Pliocene). The conglomerates were formed by loose fragments of rounded rock that can easily measure as much as 20 cm in diameter. The fragments we find in this zone include limestone rocks from very old units found in the Pre-Coastal Mountain Range. These conglomerates were brought here by torrential flood waters containing eroded material from the Pre-Coastal Range. At shallow depths, we find sediments of marine and coastal origin around 16 million years’ old.
Shallow layers of gravel, clays and silts transported by the River Anoia (at a shallow depth there are soils of marine origin).These vines are located on large flat areas situated at two different topographic levels and formed by sediments left by the River Anoia over the last million years (Quaternary). These sediments are, on the one hand, dark brown and grey clays and silts with some nodules of calcium carbonate and, on the other hand, rounded pebbles essentially made up of limestone. At a shallow depth, we find sediments of marine and coastal origin around 16 million years’ old.
